Marsteller captures district wrestling gold

Chance Marsteller vanquished a third defending PIAA champion in the past 13 months, this time giving him a District 3 Class AAA gold medal.

By TOM HUNT For the Daily Record/Sunday News

Posted:
02/23/2013 10:09:52 PM EST

Kennard-Dale's Chance Marsteller, right, works to take down Central Dauphin's Garrett Peppelman during their 160-pound championshio bout in the District 3 Class AAA Wrestling Championships at Hersheypark Arena on Saturday. Marsteller won, 7-2, to claim his third straight district title. (FOR THE DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS --- CHRIS KNIGHT)

HERSHEY -- Three was Chance Marsteller's magic number Saturday evening at Hersheypark Arena.

Three times in the last 13 months, the Kennard-Dale wrestling star has faced a defending PIAA champion and each time he has come out on top.

Saturday evening's victim was Central Dauphin's Garrett Peppelman, the 2012 state champion at 152, via a not-as-close-as-it-looks score of 7-2, in the 160-pound weight class of the District 3 Class AAA Wrestling Championships.

The victory gave Marsteller his third consecutive district gold medal.

That was the lone first-place finish for the YAIAA's big schools as Spring Grove's Mason Bentzel and Dallastown's Cooper Deller each came home with silver medals in the 145-pound and 182-pound weight classes, respectively.

Nine other YAIAA wrestlers finished in the top four during Saturday's action, earning a return trip to Hershey for the state tournament which starts March 7 at Giant Center.

Deller will be joined at the PIAA event by Wildcats teammates Rodney Sunday (126), Wes Hoover (132) and Tanner Druck (152), while Derek Carlisle (113) and Zack Clingan (120) will represent the Rockets along with Bentzel.

The other state qualifiers from the YAIAA include Central York's Dylan Chatterton (106), West York's Kyle Narber (170), Eastern York's Alex Cooley (195) and South Western's Aram Moffitt (220).

The Marsteller-Peppelman match was one everyone wanted to see because it is so rare that defending champions are in the same weight. But it was old news for Marsteller.

In last season's PIAA final, the Rams star took apart defending champ Brian Brill of Central Mountain, 17-7, to win his second state crown. This past December, Marsteller had the closest match of his scholastic career, a 3-2 ultimate-tiebreaker decision over Canon McMillan's Cody Wiercioch, a two-time PIAA gold medalist.

Marsteller certainly doesn't shy away from challenges.

"A lot of preparation went into this match," said Marsteller. "I've been trying to get a match with Garrett since I was young but we always seemed to be one weight class apart."

While he might have wanted it, it's hard to imagine Peppelman, 43-0 coming into the final, wanted it as the Rams junior never took a legitimate shot the entire match. He also didn't wrestle much of a kneeling position, something many fans see as stalling.

"I knew if I stayed on the attack (Peppelman) would have to come up (off his knees)," said the Ram junior.

As usual, Marsteller was on the attack from the start, narrowly missing a couple of scoring opportunities before hitting the first takedown with 44 seconds remaining in the first period for a 2-0 lead.

Two more takedowns extended the lead to 6-2 and an escape five seconds into the third period capped the scoring for Marsteller, who is now 121-0 for his career.

Spring Grove's Mason Bentzel, bottom, fights to get away from Cedar Cliff's Chris Vassar during their 145-pound championshiop bout in the District 3 Class AAA Wrestling Championships at Hersheypark Arena on Saturday. Bentzel lost by major decision, 13-1. (FOR THE DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS --- CHRIS KNIGHT)

In the 145-pound title bout, Bentzel was up against one of District 3's best, Chris Vassar of Cedar Cliff. The Colt senior, a returning district champion and the 2012 PIAA runner-up at 138, never let the Rocket junior in the match, racking up three takedowns on his way to a 13-1 major decision.

"I tried to take it like any other match but he beat me bad," said the 39-4 Bentzel. "I've got two weeks left in the season. I'm going in (to the state tournament) to try to snag a medal."

Deller was leading Marcus Johnson of Governor Mifflin, 2-0, when the Wildcat senior got reversed to his back for a five-point move which he couldn't overcome, dropping a 10-7 decision in the 182-pound final.

"I held on too long. It's hard to come back from a deficit like that in this kind of match. .. It feels pretty good (making states)," said Deller (32-4).

Disappointed for Deller, Wildcat coach Matt Streibig was not going to let one result ruin an excellent day for his squad.

"I'm thrilled for all the kids. They wrestled hard today," he said. "The effort has always been there. You just need a little luck. You just have to keep plugging away."

Saturday morning's semifinal round was a tough one of the local competitors as the York-Adams leaguers went just 3-for-11. However, six of those eight responded with wins in the consolation semifinal to secure their ticket to states.

Sunday and Cooley had the most dramatic finishes among those six winners.

After giving up a late takedown to send the match to overtime, Sunday recorded the winning takedown 18 seconds into the extra time for a 5-3 decision over Jonathan Ross of Northern. Cooley needed even more time to get by Chambersburg's Dontez King, going to the ultimate tiebreaker.

The Golden Knight grappler wasted no time, getting the winning escape eight seconds into the final 30-second period for a 2-1 decision. It's the second trip to the Giant Center for Cooley, who qualified last season in Class AA.